Malaysia defends web traffic re-routing plan against online censorship concerns

8/9/2024 12:16

        Malaysia's communications regulator has defended a plan for local telecommunications firms to re-route web traffic through their own domain name system (DNS) servers, saying the move was meant to protect users from harmful online content.
        
        The directive, which takes effect on Sept. 30, has prompted new concerns, including from some ruling party officials, of growing online censorship and fears that it could jeopardise the country's digital economy.
        
        DNS is a system that translates domain names into numerical addresses used by computers to locate websites on the internet.
        
        While local internet service providers, or ISPs, often operate their own DNS servers, some web users use public DNS servers, such as those provided by Google or Cloudflare, to gain faster internet speeds or access websites blocked on local ISPs.
        
        Under the government plan, user requests from such third-party DNS servers will be redirected to those operated by Malaysian ISPs.